The Research Institute of the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital continues to expand and improve its animal facilities and to develop centralized programs of animal care in order to comply with the standards outlined in the USDA Animal Welfare Act and DHHS policies. Within the past two years, the animal rooms located on the fourth and fifth floors of the Research Institute were completely renovated. These animal rooms house rats and mice and provide ready access to animals that are being actively used in experimental protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Due to the expansion of the activities of the Research Institute, these facilities are no longer adequate for housing all of the rodents and were not designed for housing larger animals. In this application, funds are requested to support the renovation and acquisition of equipment for one of the buildings at the Bassett Research farm, currently used to house a colony of hares that are used for long-term cholesterol feeding experiments to study the formation and development of atherosclerotic lesions. The research farm facility is located on 15 acres of land one mile from the hospital and is comprised of four buildings originally used for the breeding and housing of dogs used in the experimental bone marrow transplantation program begun in the 1950's by E. Donnell Thomas. To provide an animal facility certifiable by the American Association for the Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) for the continuation and expansion of NIH-funded research, the farm facility must by renovated. The major item required in the renovation is a new and more flexible heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. In addition, a request is made for a pass-thru cage washer that is absolutely necessary for the maintenance of sanitary conditions mandated by animal care and use regulations. With the completion of the proposed alterations and renovations to the farm facility, the entire animal facility and program would be accreditable by AAALAC.